[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]

Jordan Lake and Falls Lake birds



On Saturday 9/15 I counted Farrington Point and a few nearby areas at Jordan 
Lake with the help of Anssi Vähätalo (from Finland) and Mike Skakuj (an 
ornithologist from Poland).  Unfortunately it was a fairly slow day - the 
front blew more birds out of this area than it brought in and the strong 
winds kept the ones that were there quiet.  Even though birds seemed scarce, 
we still ended up with 59 species, including 10 species of warblers, near 
average in my experience for this count.  As with other parties, we saw good 
numbers of Bald Eagles, 2 adults and 3 immatures.  No rarities, but we did 
find a llingering Yellow Warbler and a Yellow-throated Warbler (as Jeff 
did), an Empidonax flycatcher (seen briefly, probably Acadian or Least), and 
a couple of Caspian Terns.  We explored two great areas that I'd never been 
to before - Sexton and Stone Roads.  Barbara Roth's description of these 
areas is at http://www.duke.edu/~cwcook/tbg/farr.html

On Sunday I did some exploring near Falls Lake at Brickhouse Road and the 
Flat River Impoundment.  Both these areas are huge, with many miles of open 
trails, and have great birding potential  (there's no way you could fully 
cover either one in a day).  It was still windy, and most birds were lying 
low, but I saw some good stuff.  Brickhouse Road is probably the best single 
spot around here for watching hawks and it didn't disappoint, but the 
highlight of the day was my first "good" migrant of the fall - an adult male 
Golden-winged Warbler - sweet!   Also got some nice butterfly photos - see 
http://www.duke.edu/~cwcook/pix/butterflies.html

I added some photos I took yesterday to Norm Budnitz's writeup at 
http://www.duke.edu/~cwcook/tbg/butner.html and added one new trail 
description (map needs updating). 


-- 
Charles W. "Will" Cook                  w 919-660-7423
http://www.duke.edu/~cwcook            cwcook@duke.edu
Biology Dept., Duke Univ., Box 90340, Durham, NC 27708